Rapid identification of grouper and wreck fish meals by ELISA: a field study in restaurants

Abstract

Grouper (Epinephelus marginatus) and wreck fish (Polyprion americanus) are two costly and demanding fish species which are subjected to substitution in the restaurant industry. In our study, 44 purported grouper and wreck fish meals (24 from school and university lunch rooms and 20 from restaurants) were analysed using an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (microtiter plates and immunostick format) and a MAb specific to these fish species. The results showed that 29 out of 44 meal samples were misdescribed in the restaurant menus. This ELISA procedure, which has proved to be specific, sensitive, cheap and very simple to develop, could be very useful for accurate authentication of meals in the restaurant industry.

Molecular Rapid Test for Identification of Tuna Species

“…Spectroscopic techniques coupled with chemometrics and molecular methods are the most widely used for fish authenticity testing. As for proteinbased techniques, these include proteomics based on mass spectrometry [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], twodimensional electrophoresis with subsequent analysis with mass spectrometry [14], isoelectric focusing [15,16], enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) [17][18][19][20], and capillary electrophoresis [21]. The methods developed for the identification of individual species are time-consuming and less successful in processed foods since the specific morphological traits are transformed throughout the processing.…”